Urinary incontinence occurs in both men and women. Various types of incontinence are caused by different conditions and call for different treatments. For example, stress urinary incontinence (SUI) is known to be caused by at least two conditions, intrinsic sphincter deficiency (ISD) and hypermobility. In women, these conditions may occur independently or in combination. In ISD, the urinary sphincter valve, located within the urethra, fails to close properly (coapt), causing urine to leak out of the urethra during stressful activity. Hypermobility is a condition in which the pelvis floor is distended, weakened or damaged, causing the bladder neck and proximal urethra to rotate and descend in response to increases in intra-abdominal pressure (for example, due to sneezing, coughing, straining, etc.). As a result, the patient's response time becomes insufficient to promote urethral closure and, consequently, the patient suffers from urine leakage and/or flow.
One way to treat incontinence, both in men and women, is to place a surgical sling or suture in the periurethral tissue such as under the bladder neck or the urethra to provide a urethral platform. Placement of the sling limits the endopelvis fascia drop while providing compression to the urethral sphincter to improve coaptation. The sling may be affixed using a bone anchoring method. Alternatively, a medical professional can use an anchorless approach to stabilize the urethra with a sling by placing the sling in the periurethral tissue and relying on tissue compression and eventual tissue in-growth to secure the sling in position.